The Ron Ogi Interview
Conducted by Paul Bax

When and how did you first start your training in martial arts?
Ron Ogi: I started my first training in Greco-Roman Wrestling at the age of eight years old and then went on to do judo in 1969 while living in Tokyo, Japan. I was into sports during my youth and used to follow my father to the gym in Camp Zama. At the gym they had a youth wrestling team practicing and I was fascinated by what they were doing and asked my father if I could join the team. My father gave the okay and thus started my wrestling career. I had a friend who was taking judo and he showed me some techniques where it sparked an interest to learn a different form of grappling. I became interested in judo and started to train diligently in 1970. Unfortunately I never made it pass white belt because my family was going to move to Hawaii and I had to quit training.

How did you first hear about Bruce Lee?
RO: In 1973, I was attending Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City, Hawaii when I used to see these kids carrying nunchakus to school. It was at that time Return Of The Dragon was playing at the theaters and Bruce Lee died so there was a lot of talk amongst the students. Out of curiosity I asked my father to take me to a Bruce Lee’s movie and we went to Kam Drive-In to watch it. After watching Return Of the Dragon, I was hooked on Bruce Lee and he became my idol. I was raised in Japan until I was 10 years old so I grew up watching Japanese TV were they had shows of super heroes fighting bad guys using martial arts. I grew up watching the fight scenes so watching people doing kicks, punches and sword fighting was nothing really new to me. But when I saw Bruce Lee in action, I knew he was something special. Of all the fight scenes I saw on TV, nothing even compared to what he was doing on the big screen. I remember taking the bus to Waikiki to watch Return Of The Dragon at the Waikiki 3 Theater and I sat through 5 showings of it. I would go to the bathroom after the show was finished and waited till they cleaned the theater and walked back when the next crowd came in. Bruce Lee had made a big impact on me but I did not know how big until years later.

What was it about WCD that led you away from traditional martial arts?